My thoughts on books, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

“Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack” and Delicate Webs of Relationships

The title may be bonkers, but underneath it is a surprisingly interesting and subtle story. A boy falls in love, a girl falls out of love, mothers and fathers drop in and out of their children’s lives.

Over the course of this odd little book, people walk in and out of one another’s lives all the time. They start to be something to one another, then stop, then start again. They forget to pay attention to one another, then are forced to change.

And as the novel unfolds, delicate webs of relationships are constructed. This person says this, and the results ripple through the little network. One person hijacks another, and no one is quite sure how to respond except to hijack back.

No one is unknowable in the world of a good novel–not the the all-seeing eye of the author. And through their eyes, we can see more about people than we ever expected.